This invention relates to a watercraft and more particularly to a small personal type of watercraft designed to be operated by a single rider seated in a partially standing position and having a sporting nature that permits the watercraft to be leaned like a motorcycle but which provides good stability. Specifically, the invention relates to an improved hull configuration for such a watercraft, a configuration of the hull that permits ventilation of the engine compartment and a fuel tank and filler arrangement for such a watercraft.
In the watercraft of the types described in the afornoted co-pending applications, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference, the hull configuration is particularly important in providing a hull configuration that will have straight ahead stability, will allow the rider to lean the watercraft and which will also have sufficient stability that once the watercraft is leaned more than a certain extent, it will become stable.
In order to maintain sporting performance for such watercraft, it is desirable to insure that the hull is quite compact and short in length. Also, although these types of watercraft are quite sporting in their nature, it is also desirable to insure that the wake or spray caused by the motion of the watercraft when passing through the water does not discharge upwardly in front of the rider or passengers. In addition to the disadvantages of getting the rider and passengers overly wet, the forward discharge of the spray will obscure the visibility. Of course, it is easy to provide an arrangement that will redirect the spray away from the front of the watercraft, but the constructions previously proposed for this purpose have necessitated long hulls, which is undesirable for the reasons as aforenoted.
It is, therefore, a principal object to this invention to provide an improved hull configuration for such a small watercraft that provides a compact construction and, at the same time, will cause the spray to be redirected away from the front of the watercraft so as to not obscure the rider's vision or cause a loss of buoyancy.
With this type of watercraft it is the normal practice to provide an engine compartment which is either beneath or immediately forward the rider's area and in which the powering internal combustion engine is positioned. This type of watercraft is frequently powered by a jet propulsion unit that is mounted in a tunnel at the rear of the watercraft and normally beneath the seat or the rider's area. With such an arrangement, it is desirable that the engine compartment can be readily accessed and yet that the engine compartment be relatively tightly sealed from water so as to preclude the entry of large amounts of water into the engine compartment where it might damage the engine. However, it is also necessary to provide adequate air flow to the engine compartment not only as combustion air for the engine but also so as to ventilate the engine compartment and avoid the accumulation of undesirable gases in the engine compartment.
Although a wide variety of ventilation systems have been proposed for such watercraft, these systems tend to become complicated, require a large number of parts and interfere with the access to the engine compartment.
It is, therefore, a still further object to this invention to provide an improved ventilating system for a small watercraft.
It is a further object to this invention to provide a ventilating system for a small watercraft wherein the ventilation system is completely incorporated within a removal cover that covers the access opening to the engine compartment, but which nevertheless permits both the influx and discharge of ventilating air.
It is a further object to this invention to provide an improved and simplified ventilating arrangement for a small watercraft of this type wherein the entire ventilation system can be incorporated in a removal hatch cover.
This type of watercraft is normally controlled by a handle bar assembly positioned immediately forwardly of the rider's area and frequently over either the engine compartment or some other auxiliaries which should be accessed for service purposes. However, if a removal hatch cover is employed for this purpose, then it must not only provide the support for the control but also must permit the desired ventilation arrangement.
It is, therefore, a still further object to this invention to provide an improved ventilating hatch cover for a small watercraft that also is capable of carrying the watercraft controls.
As should be readily apparent from the foregoing description, the very compact nature of this type of watercraft gives rise to a number of problems. Some of those have already been mentioned and these include the positioning of the various necessary components for the watercraft and their accessibility. One component which should be positioned so as to be accessible and yet protected, is the fuel tank for containing fuel for the engine. It is, of course, desirable to permit a large fuel storage capacity but the fuel tank must also be such that it can be readily accessible so as to permit refueling.
It is another object to this invention to provide an improved fuel tank and filler arrangement for a small watercraft.